The windshield or windscreen of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike, truck, train, boat or streetcar is the front window, which provides visibility while protecting occupants from the elements. Modern windshields are generally made of laminated safety glass, a type of treated glass, which consists of, typically, two curved sheets of glass with a plastic layer laminated between them for safety, and bonded into the window frame.
Panoramic (wrap-around) windshield on a 1959 Edsel Corsair
Split and raked windshield on a 1952 DeSoto. Note the panes of glass are flat.
The laminated glass in Vice President Richard Nixon's vehicle was nearly breached by a hostile crowd in Caracas in 1958
Automobile windshield displaying "spiderweb" cracking typical of laminated safety glass
Laminated glass is a type of safety glass consisting of two or more layers of glass with one or more thin polymer interlayers between them which prevent the glass from breaking into large sharp pieces. Breaking produces a characteristic "spider web" cracking pattern when the impact is not enough to completely pierce the glass.
Automobile windshield with "spider web" cracking typical of laminated safety glass.
Firefighters breaking through a laminated windshield